Officer Down: Paradise
by LacytheRomanWerewolf
Summary: Hotch's guilt comes between him and Emily when she tries to help him. HP


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Lacy here. Alright next episode up for Officer Down is Paradise. Quick recap on the episode, dude is keeping couples in a cabin, beating the men, raping and beating the women before killing them then leaving them in the middle of the road in their cars to be taken out by big rigs. Someone has issues, that's for sure. Now as we know, Hotch talks with the unsub, not knowing it's him and feels guilty after. Can Emily find a way to get him over that guilt or will Hotch close himself off from everyone, even his girlfriend? Have fun.

Disclaimer: As the Wheel of Life spins, it never lands on me owning the show.

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Emily watched Hotch, as they returned to the BAU, move quickly to his office where he closed the door and drew the blinds. She knew he was feeling guilt over the fact that he had spoken with the unsub and not seen that it was him.

"He's become a brick wall." Dave said, startling Emily out of her thoughts.

Emily faced Dave. "What are you talking about?"

"Aaron, he won't let anyone convince him it wasn't his fault." Dave said.

Emily sighed. "Of course not."

"You gonna take a whack at him?" Dave asked.

"Physically or verbally?" Emily shot back.

Dave laughed. "Whichever works I guess. Though if you do go with the physical approach, remember he's the boss and all."

Emily nodded. "Yeah I know."

Dave slipped his coat on. "Well my report can wait until morning so I'll see you later."

"Night Dave." Emily said waving after the man.

She looked around and noticed the rest of the team seemed to be gone as well. Huh, apparently she'd been staring at Hotch's closed blinds longer then she thought. Sighing, she stood and made her way to Hotch's office. She knocked on the door, waited for his answer, then went in.

"Hey, you heading home at all tonight?" Emily asked.

Hotch didn't even look up. "After I get this report out of the way."

"Hotch, it wasn't your fault." Emily said. "Any one of us could have gone there and missed it."

"I should have seen it." Hotch said.

"Aaron," Emily tried.

"Don't Emily." Hotch said.

Emily sighed. "Fine, it's clear that you're not going to listen. I'm going home."Hotch knew the tone in Emily's voice but when he looked up to stop her, she was already gone. He went to his office door and found her already climbing into the elevator. Leaning against the door frame, Hotch sighed.

"Damnit."

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Emily settled down on her couch, her late dinner of take out sitting on the coffee table, her favorite book in her hands. She was trying to focus on the book but her conversation, if you could call it that, with Hotch kept replaying in her head. She knew she did the right thing by leaving. If she had stayed longer they would have ended up fighting and she didn't want that. But she still felt like she had to get through to Hotch that what happened on the case wasn't his fault.

"This is what I get for picking such a stubborn man." Emily muttered to herself as she picked up the container of spare ribs.

Before she could even take a bite, there was a knock at her front door. Rolling her eyes in annoyance, Emily put the food down and walked to the door. Looking through the peep hole, she was actually kind of surprised to see Hotch on the other side. She half expected him to stay at the office and pretend the talk never happened. Opening the door, Emily leaned against it.

"Hi." she said.

Hotch looked up from his hands. "Hi, can I come in?"

Emily nodded and stood back, letting Hotch in. He stood just away from the door while she closed and locked it before they both walked down the hall to the living room. As they stood in front of each other, both were hit with a sense of deja vu.

"I owe you an apology Emily." Hotch said. "I shouldn't have been short with you at the office and I'm sorry."

Emily nodded and crossed her arms. "Ok apology accepted."

"I don't want this to sound like my ego talking," Hotch continued. "but I'm not used to missing things like I did with this case and it wasn't sitting well."

"So you decided moping about it in your office was the way to make it sit correctly?" Emily asked.

Hotch sighed. "Honestly I was hoping if I got the report done I'd stop thinking about it but focusing on work is just a bit hard when I knew I'd brushed off my girlfriend because I was in a bad mood." he looked at Emily and she was surprised by the depth of emotion there. "Em, I made a lot of mistakes with Haley, one being exactly what I did with you tonight and what really kills me about it was I promised myself I'd learn from past mistakes, not repeat them. Yet, that's exactly what I did."

"Did your guilt with Haley ever reach the point where you couldn't work?" Emily asked.

Hotch exhaled. "Sadly no."

Emily stepped up to Hotch and took his hand. "Then you are learning because instead of still sitting in your office, you're here explaining and apologizing. I'd say that's a good step in the right direction."

Hotch thought about what Emily said and realized she was right.

'Like that's a big surprise.' Hotch snorted to himself.

Emily watched Hotch's face and knew the case was still weighing on him.

"It doesn't make you any less the brilliant profiler you that because you missed it." Emily said. "We all slip up on occasion. It doesn't make us any less good at our jobs."

Hotch rested his forehead against Emily's. "I know. I really do know that. I guess I just didn't want to see it."

Emily smiled. "I guess it's my job then to help you see it."

Hotch smiled as well and kissed Emily. Breaking away he glanced at the coffee table.

"You do know you've got enough food to feed our team for at least three days, right?" Hotch said.

Emily laughed. "Yeah but it might not be as much if you help me eat it."

Hotch pulled Emily to the couch. "I think I can do that."

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And there we go. A bit of drama between our happy couple but I think it's moments like this that help strengthen their relationship. Let me know what you think, flame policy stands and thanks for reading.

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